Projects – John B Ledger

Straight A’s. 17 January – 11 April 2026

The Millennial Gaze. This long-running joke. Best Amongst Ruins Image from the burn-out decade. Big Exit..

‘Canary in the Coal-mine’ at the Barnsley Civic.

Thank you everyone who came to the Barnsley Civic for ‘Canary in the Coal mine’ on April 11th, a talk and screening to close the exhibition Straight A’s at The Cooper Gallery. Big thanks to Lucy Dewsnap for brilliantly chairing the event. ‘Canary in the Coal mine’ was a substitute title that I never usedContinue reading “‘Canary in the Coal-mine’ at the Barnsley Civic.”

Straight A’s, milestone solo exhibition

My solo exhibition at The Cooper Gallery is still on for exactly another 2 months, and will be open from 10am-4pm except on Sundays. The exhibition is running alongside “Expressing the Walls in My Mind” Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing. In collaboration with artist Tony Wade and with support from Barnsley Civic,Continue reading “Straight A’s, milestone solo exhibition”

Releasing my ‘Back to Normalism’ print series

Finally, I’ve developed my ‘Back to Normalism’ print series that I’ve been working on a while. ‘Back to Normalism’ is a series of works that speak of the post-pandemic world, culture, and are my best way of summing up the times we’re in. I am making available a limited number of 20 of each work,Continue reading “Releasing my ‘Back to Normalism’ print series”

Straight A’s book AND album fundraiser

I have started a fundraiser for a book and album for my upcoming exhibition, and ongoing project ‘Straight A’s: Anxiety, Anorexia, Alcohol, Ageing and Art’. This project will be a milestone moment in my life as an artist. For this reason I am making a ‘Straight A’s’ book, which will both tell my story and display a selectionContinue reading “Straight A’s book AND album fundraiser”

Saying goodbye to old works

I guess interpreting a work of art is still one of the few spaces in contemporary life where we are forced to confront the void of comprehension that exists between ourselves and the Other. As much as Social Media is encouraging ‘creatives’ to be production lines for our own identity, which is built upon anContinue reading “Saying goodbye to old works”

The Mental Health Strike ’24

On 6 March 2024 the world’s first Mental Health Strike brought normal life to a near-total stand-still. One after another, people from many walks of life bridged the deep social divides, by publicly declaring that they could no longer maintain good mental health under contemporary work/life conditions. The Mental Health Strike initially began as aContinue reading “The Mental Health Strike ’24”

Looking back 6 years

The mental health strike. A strike that I posited happened in an alternate reality in late January (the week always desrcibed as the most depressing) in 2018. We do live in a very different reality now, though. A very unexpected one, still confused and defined by a vague sense of dislocation, after a pandemic nobodyContinue reading “Looking back 6 years”

40th birthday present to myself

To deal with turning 40 I decided to post an ‘album’ of songs from my twenties on Spotify:

Turning 40 (a list of things I’m most proud about from the last 20 years)

I’m 40 years old in roughly 20 days. When it comes to a life lived through formalities, and rites of passage, there has been no life to speak of. Forgive me if this sounds like wallowing, it’s because Xmas time is really genuinely hard at the best of times. Seeing photos of couples, or familiesContinue reading “Turning 40 (a list of things I’m most proud about from the last 20 years)”